BJP's Giriraj Singh jeers at opposition over exit polls; RJD's Tejashwi Yadav terms predictions fraud and contrary to ground reality

Patna: The RJD on Monday trashed exit polls predicting victory for the NDA in the general election as “fraud” and contrary to the ground reality against the BJP-led ruling coalition. Besides predicting a second term for Narendra Modi as prime minister, the exit polls have forecast a tally of 30 or more for the NDA out of a total 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The NDA in Bihar comprises BJP, JD(U) of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP. [caption id=“attachment_6668491” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Tejashwi Yadav and Giriraj Singh. PTI[/caption] In a statement, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said reject these exit polls which are simply compulsions of the market purveyed through a different name. It is an old trick of psychological manipulation of the deprived classes by Sangh-supported institutions and resources. Reminding the people of the 2015 Assembly polls wherein he had made his electoral debut and went on to become the deputy chief minister, Yadav said on the day when counting of votes was taking place, trends shown in the media suggested that we were losing. BJP and its allies had even started bursting crackers. The Grand Alliance of RJD, JD(U) and Congress had swept the assembly polls, winning more than two-thirds of the total number of seats of the 243-strong assembly. Keep a close watch on strong rooms so that those adept at dirty games do not succeed in their tricks, Yadav signed off hinting that he suspected manipulation of EVMs, a charge levelled by many opposition leaders. Veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav, who is contesting from Madhepura on the ticket of the RJD with which he is expected to merge his own party LJD, also tweeted exit polls of Lok Sabha elections are fraud and not the truth. Ground reality was totally different and against the NDA. Union minister and senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh used the exit polls projections to attack opposition parties. Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu and all other opposition leaders have gone into the ICU, politically speaking, after viewing the exit polls. After 23 May, these leaders must observe political penance (raajnitik pashchatap) so that they could attain political salvation (raajneetik moksha), Singh tweeted in Hindi. The firebrand BJP leader, known for his acerbic and often controversial remarks, is himself in the fray from Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar where he was locked in a triangular contest with CPIs Kanhaiya Kumar and RJDs Tanveer Hassan.